The Villainess and I, her Zombie

*crunch* *munch* *munch*

"...haaa..."

As the black wolf was snacking on the headless corpse of the massive griffin, Cranberry was standing by him, carefully observing the corpse.

"Arion, sorry to disturb your meal, but could you wait a bit."

"Raor...?"

In the end, she tapped his back and asked, causing the wolf to look back at her and tilt his head in confusion.

"Mary, Roan, could you both come here for a bit?"

The red-haired girl took his growl as confirmation and waved at the other two.

"Eh...? But, I thought that we were in a hurry...?"

Mary asked surprised, but even so, she was already trotting towards the corpse – and Roan joined her without voicing any concerns.

"This is quite a big griffin, right...? Or it should be – look how it looks now that it's dead."

Cranberry crouched by the dead monster and patted its feathers – her hand sunk in quite deep and when she lifted it up, the thing she was hinting at became clear.

"...huh...? Isn't this one really skinny? Like, way more than the ones we slew before...?"

The blond prince furrowed his brows and crouched by cranberry, making sure for himself.

"No way! What's this supposed to be – if you take away the feathers it's all skin and bones...!"

He gasped in shock.

"Exactly – this one should be at least three or even four times more muscular... It looks like it was extremely starved... haa..."

Cranberry nodded, furrowing her brows and sighing in concern at the mystery.

"Eh...? What do you mean? Are you saying that somebody came up with the same idea as you and caught it and tried to starve it to force it into becoming their familiar...?"

Mary gasped looking at Cranberry with fearful eyes.

"HA?! Excuse me?! When did I come up with something like that?!"

Mary's words caused the red-haired girl to jolt up and glared back at her in anger mixed with disbelief.

"Eh...? B-but you said that maybe I, as a tamer, could entice the griffin with food... Didn't you mean...?"

The brown-haired girl cowered and backed off in embarrassment.

"I meant it like entice it with some really good food that it could not get in the wild, like cooked dishes! Griffins are very intelligent so they should realize that it's better to stay with a cook rather than risk attacking villages whenever they want to taste the cooked food again! Why would I suggest starving them?! There's no doubt that my Zombie would hate me if he learned about something so horrible!"

Cranberry shouted furiously, getting red from anger.

"Ah...! I-I'm sorry! I just...! I just know that while you are hungry... ah... I'm sorry...!"

Mary's chin shook and she started bowing her head repeatedly.

"...haa..."

That somewhat appeased Cranberry's anger, as the girl breathed out and closed her eyes.

"Let's get back to our griffin, alright...?"

Roan looked between the two girls and asked slowly.

"I don't think that someone starved this one. And not just because I think that it would be an awful thing to do."

Cranberry crossed her arms and declared.

"Oh...?"

Roan raised his brows and looked at her, curiously.

"Actually, I don't think that this griffin has a partner – at least not anymore."

She added motioning at the monster's corpse with her chin.

"If we consider the season and all... You see, griffins are similar to birds when it comes to nesting and having young."

The red-haired girl unfolded her arms and started gesturing while talking.

"They lay eggs, and usually one of the parents goes looking for food while the other one stays behind and warms the eggs. They are very organized while doing so, going as far as shifting the role once every few days."

She explained getting more energetic with each word as if talking about the little details like that was making her very happy.

"Alright... but then what about his one...?"

Roan nodded but then shrugged his shoulders and raised his brow questioningly.

"The griffins are known to have strong familial bonds – although they are very territorial creatures, they never fight with each other if they are related and stuff like that. They are also extremely protective over their eggs."

Cranberry turned to him and continued.

"With that in mind, I think that this one's partner didn't return to their nest, and since this one didn't want to leave the egg, they stayed behind so long until the hunger forced them to search for food. And since we saw it flying really low, I am sure that the nest is somewhere nearby because this one wanted to just hunt down anything and return to the egg before it will get cold and the chick inside would die."

"..."

After hearing that, everyone felt bad – even Arion, who was about to take another bite of the corpse, closed his jaws and backed away with his tail slumped down.

"It is sad, but we can't turn back the time – but, as mean as it sounds -can use the opportunity!"

"Opportunity...?!"

Cranberry clenched her fists and turned to the confused Mary.

"Griffins are just like birds and birds imprint on the first creature they see after they hatch! Mary, if we will be fast enough and get to the eggs before it's too late, we might be able to make you one of the very few people who managed to tame a griffin!"

The red-haired girl approached the brown-haired one and grabbed her hands.

"!!!!!!"

Once the meaning of Cranberry's words fully reached Mary, her eyes widened and filled with excitement.

"Arion! Arion! You have a tracking skill, don't you! Hurry! We need to find the nest as soon as possible!"

The brown-haired girl grabbed back on Cranberry's hands and leaned to the side to command her familiar.

"Raor...?"

Though the black wolf seemed unsure, still glancing at the corpse of the adult griffin with a bit of sadness.

"We will save the baby chicks!"

"...!"

Mary added and that seemed to convince the wolf as he perked up and the next moment his nose started glowing with white light.

"Raor!"

He ended up barking confidently and ran off slightly to the east of the direction the adult griffin originally came from.

"He already picked out the trail?! Cranberry, I think you were right about the nest is near!"

Mary jumped up excitedly and both girls started chasing after the wolf...

"W-wait for me!"

...followed by the blond prince who had to carry a massive sword bigger than himself.